Blueberries and rose petals, crystals and storms.

*Insert guilty sentence about not updating blog here*

Hello! I've missed you all. Lots has happened recently, big changes and little ones, new friends, old ones lost, all sorts of things! I have a few foodie photos to share with you, and then a rather appetising recipe, if I do say so myself.

 What do you reckon? I was recently holidaying in Gozo, specificaly the village of Xaghra. The weather was incredible! The people were so friendly, and the food was unbelievable - small peppered goats cheese, warmed olives with the gentlest flavour, sweet air-cured bresaola, huge smiles of watermelon - the list goes on! Getting to to a stormy Scotland however, despite it being the month of August, I made blueberry muffins in a fit of wet-weather gloom. I'm also shortly moving to Corsica, so I am making the most of the gorgeous green aga whislt I have it! Crystallised rose petals were also on the menu - waking up at 6 am this morning had its organisational advantages, and all I had to do today was done by ten, roughly. I shall go and be disheveled and confused for a good while after I post the recipe, in order to readdress the balance!!

Here goes!

For Elo's blueberry and cinnamon muffins, you need:

375g self raising flour

90g unsalted butter

220g caster sugar

200g blueberries

teaspoon cinnamon

310ml buttermilk (Sainsbury's do this in annoyingly sized 284ml pots, so top up the buttermilk with regular milk)

1 egg, lightly beaten

12 hole muffin case, and butter to grease

Sift your flour into a large bowl, and then rub in the butter using the very tips of your fingers. Follow up with the sugar, eggs, blueberries, buttermilk and cinnamon, then mix until lumpy - don't overmix your muffins, you'll lose precious air! Grease your muffin tin, and then scoop out your muffins from the bowl into the tin and bake in a moderately hot over for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and clean to the spearing with a skewer!

The crystallised rose petals are a matter of minutes however, (those they are sticky minutes!!) the rose petals MUST be unsprayed - you really don't want to eat pesticides, and then washed and dried before you brush them with egg white (pastry brush - hello!) and sprinkle them with caster sugar. Lay them flat on some tin foil and then leave to dry, preferably somewhere warm, like an airing cupboard (where mine are crystallising quite nicely).

I hope you all have lovely weeks and lovelier weekends!!

Eloise 

xxx